Thoughts On Colorado Rockies’ Reliever Rex Brothers’ Release Points

Jul 11, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies pitcher R. Brothers (49) delivers a pitch during the seventh inning against the Atlanta Braves at Coors Field. The Rockies won 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

July 11 vs Atlanta: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 15 pitches (4 strikes)

Brothers’ first outing in the big leagues in 2015 didn’t exactly go as planned, as he was removed from a tight game against the Braves while only recording one out — and throwing four strikes.

Here are the release points on his 15 pitches from July 11:

The point of view on these plots are from the catcher’s perspective (hence his release point on the right side of the graph as a left-handed pitcher), and as you can tell, it’s about six and a half feet off the ground, and roughly three feet off the invisible line extending from the very center of home plate out to the center of the pitcher’s rubber.

And here are the locations (talk about a scatter shot!) of his 15 pitches from that same day:

Remember the relationship between his release points (relatively consistent in nearly the exact same place pitch after pitch after pitch), and his scattershot results (all over the strike zone, high, low, in, and out). Spoiler alert: that relationship will continue over his next two outings, too.

Next: July 12 vs the Atlanta Braves

Apr 30, 2014; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Colorado Rockies pitcher R. Brothers against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

July 12 vs Atlanta: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 21 pitches (12 strikes)

Brothers threw his greatest percentage of strikes in his second outing back in the big leagues, tossing an inning against Atlanta in the Rockies’ blowout win before the All Star Break.

His release points from the July 12 outing vs the Braves:

And here are the locations of those 21 pitches:

Almost there! One more outing — let’s see how he did the other night against Texas…

Next: July 21 vs the Texas Rangers

Sep 4, 2013; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies pitcher R. Brothers (49) delivers a pitch during the ninth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Coors Field. The Rockies won 7-5. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

July 21 vs Texas: 1.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 29 pitches (16 strikes)

Brothers’ third outing was his most extended thus far, throwing 1.1 innings of garbage time in a blowout loss to the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night. He only walked one hitter in that outing, but still threw just over 50% of his pitches for strikes.

His release points in that July 21 outing:

And, the results of the 29 pitches he threw in that outing:

More, more, more of the same, eh?

Click that next slide button here and let’s talk about what all this means for Sexy Rexy.

Next: What This All Means For Brothers

July 28, 2013; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies relief pitcher R. Brothers (49) delivers a pitch in the ninth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Coors Field. The Rockies defeated the Brewers 6-5. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

3 games total: 2.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 1 K, 65 pitches (32 strikes)

Ok, so here’s the deal: look at how consistent his release points are in those three games. Granted, it varies by an inch or two here or there, but relative to other pitchers in some of the same games as Brothers (here, here, and here), his release point scatter plots are tighter than pitchers who put up better numbers in their outings. That should concern you.

It takes a lot of mechanical tweaks and moves and balance points to hit the same release point virtually every single pitch — there are literally so many moving parts in the pitching motion before the release point, that the fact that Brothers is hitting nearly the same release point every single pitch should mean he’s due to be more successful than he has been in the recent past.

And yet… here we are (again). Something is happening between release point and result (obviously), because pitch after pitch after pitch, he has managed to get himself to a consistent release point.

If that release point weren’t correct (i.e., if his mechanics were flawed, directing him to the wrong release point every single pitch), he’d have never been called back to Denver from Albuquerque in the first place.

The fact that he can hold such a consistent release point, and yet miss literally all over the strike zone (and well outside of it) with all of his pitches leaves me… confused.

I don’t know if it’s mental, or a pitch grip issue, or something mechanical that is betraying him in spite of his consistent release point, but the first scatter plots in the last three sides shouldn’t result in the corresponding second scatter plots.

Something is still wrong with Rex Brothers, it didn’t get completely fixed in Albuquerque (remember, he still walked a lot of guys even with success down there near the end of his stay), and it’ll be a long two months in Denver if this continues.

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